We are the fifth owners of the gym we just bought and it’s always sold for less than it was bought for. Of course aside from the original owners it’s never been run very well. We’re also in the middle of nowhere. Don’t know if that helps.

Infering from this and other sketchy anecdotal data I have acquired it seems like profitable sales of gyms are pretty rare. Of course it is still a immature business area (I'd guess the average age of most commercial gyms is not much more than ten years? Anyone contest that?) ... with time people will probably get better at estimating profitability at the outset and make sure they don't over-invest in new projects.

Any other thoughts on this topic, however tangential are very welcome.

If you do it right then the gym can be profitable. Metrorock in Boston is one such example: a very good and very well-run gym that I anticipate will be around for a long time, particularly since they've been looking to expand (and have actually expanded once, but are looking for other opportunities to do so).

(I'd guess the average age of most commercial gyms is not much more than ten years? Anyone contest that?)

“Good” “business men” don't tend to open climbing gyms which is both the reason why they get opened in the first place and the reason why some fail. I do agree with Ax that the ones that do well don’t get sold. One other thing I want to point out is a climbing gym is one of the few businesses where people line up to buy a when its failing. Statistics are BS and it is completely up to the person or people running the business. 80% of all restaurants fail in the first 5 years but yet many keep trying. The ones that make it are the people that do it best regardless of what business you are in. If you want to make this into a statistic you have to take into account the people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing business wise.

One other thing I want to point out is a climbing gym is one of the few businesses where people line up to buy a when its failing.

Arguably that's not very surprising as 1. by the time the gym fails everyone should have a pretty good idea of whether there are a viable number of users for the gym or not, plus 2. fixed costs in the gym business are substantially the initial start-up costs which the new buyers are probably going to acquire for a discount from the failed sellers (unless they are dumb and pay too much) ... plus 3. - I assume - owning a gym is an attractive lifestyle choice for lots of people.

A follow-on from this: does anyone have any experience of trying to raise finance for gym from third-party investors (ie not just a founder's equity plus a bank loan) they can share ... if so what was the pitch in terms of RoI and time scales for cashing out their investment?